Forty Percent Drop in Violent Crime in 2009 Cited; Impact of New Medical School Touted
  “This time Camden’s revitalization is for real… we can now say with certainty that the city is in the midst of a historic rebound.” That was the message delivered by Greater Camden Partnership President David Foster at his organization’s 2010 annual meeting last month.
  “An anchor institution-led development strategy that has been underway since the early 2000s has achieved a critical mass of development in the downtown,” Foster told a crowd of more than 350 GCP supporters at the Aquarium on the Camden waterfront.
  “True to our name, we have engaged in a partner-based approach that is unapologetically focused on a single goal—revitalizing Camden by leveraging the economic development potential of the city’s anchor institutions.
  “Across the country, anchor-led development has proven to be a sustainable and catalyzing strategy for economic development, and over the past year GCP has explicitly shifted its focus to the formulation and execution of such a strategy for Camden,” Foster said in 2010 Downtown & Beyond, his organization’s official assessment of where the city stands.
  Foster cited the expected impact of Rowan University’s new four-year medical school and a 40% drop in violent crime last year as two key barometers of success. The crime rate, he noted, was the lowest since mid-1960s.
  The projected 2012 opening of the new Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Cooper Plaza will be “a landmark for the neighborhood and for the city of Camden as a whole,” the GCP President reported. “When it opens its doors, the building will be the latest component of what is emerging as a dynamic center of health science research in southern New Jersey.”
  Located just three blocks from the new medical school, the Coriell Institute for Medical Research is “using genetic analysis to assist patients in making healthy lifestyle choices as part of its Personalized Medicine Collaborative,” Foster added. “And Cooper University Hospital, the anchor of the growing campus, has announced the construction of a new cancer center nearby.
  “Complimenting these efforts, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority has set aside the fifth floor of its successful Waterfront Technology Center for wet lab space that will provide important additional resources to the city’s researchers,” Foster said.
  “As anchors invest in their communities, each dollar generates multiplier effects that ripple outwards in the form of jobs, neighborhood stabilization, housing stock improvement, and public safety.
  “Since 2002, the city’s anchors have spent or committed more than $600 million on physical development projects in the city,” Foster noted.
  “The impact of this presence goes far beyond improvements to infrastructure. Anchors are making large investments in Camden’s human capital by administering training and recruitment programs, and by supporting community organizations and after school programs.
  “They are improving their neighborhoods by developing commercial, residential, and retail property as well as new parks, plazas, and other public spaces. They are stimulating the city’s economy by creating opportunities for city businesses and vendors through their purchases of local goods and services,” said Foster.
  Calling the past year an “important one” for his organization, Foster noted that GCP’s Camden Special Services District (CSSD) clean and safe program expanded to add two new commercial corridors, and “we launched a vacant lot initiative that greened 81 properties in just six weeks.”
  Foster also reported on the development of an employer-assisted housing program and the advancement several key “bricks and mortar” projects, including:
  •  Ground-breaking for the Salvation Army’s 120,000 square foot Kroc Community Center in Cramer Hill,
  •  Completion of plans for a 15-acre transit village near Lourdes Hospital, and
  •  Planning for a mixed-use transit hub in the heart of downtown.
  “This year GCP also revived the Broadway Main Street Program,” Foster reported, “which seeks to restore the historical arts and retail heart of South Jersey. In addition to the art gallery and caroling on Broadway, GCP partnered with Symphony in C and Cooper Hospital for a fall concert series and supported the county’s summer jazz series on the waterfront.
  “In 2010, we will continue to build on these successes,” Foster told his “Who’s Who” audience of business, civic, non profit, and government leaders.
  New Camden Mayor Dana Redd delighted the gathering by explaining that her mission is to “lift Camden to its highest potential…through more investment and more economic growth, so that the city will once again be Walt Whitman’s “city invincible” where “we can all be proud to call Camden home.”
  Foster followed the Mayor by saying that GCP’s mission is to “attract market-based development.”
  GCP’s 5+2 Model includes a city that is “clean and safe, stable neighborhoods, a thriving commercial corridor, vibrant arts and culture, and strong K-12 education.”
  When those five elements are combined with public private partnerships and sustainability, you have the ingredients for “true economic revitalization,” Foster declared.
  “Camden continues to serve as the most important civic center in southern New Jersey,” Foster noted, adding that “every day, downtown Camden comes alive with thousands of employees, students, and small business owners.
  “Many of the city’s best jobs are associated with its anchor healthcare and higher educational institutions, often known as the ‘eds and meds,’ but these are only a sample of the organizations of all sizes that are playing important roles in Camden’s resurgence,” Foster said.
  “Some of this activity has benefited the municipality for many years,” Foster acknowledged. “Camden continues to serve as the most important civic center in southern New Jersey. This is evident in the variety of local, county, state, and federal agencies and employees who are based in the city. The prominence of government entities is visible in the skyline as well - City Hall and the U.S. District Courthouse are two of the region’s most recognizable structures.”
  “But,” said Foster, “the promising news doesn’t end at the public sector. Private employers have expanded and retrenched in the city during the past decade as well. Indeed, 2009 brought the most unequivocal private commitments to date as the Campbell Soup Company undertook a large scale expansion of their Camden headquarters and Susquehanna Bank chose Camden as the headquarters for its regional operations.
  “At the same time, a burgeoning technology sector s beginning to take root. L-3 Communications has long anchored its portion of the downtown. It continues to pursue its research and development of secure communications systems in the city, and its presence has drawn other technology-related businesses to the area,” Foster said.
  “An example of this is the recently opened Waterfront Technology Center, where the New Jersey Economic Development Authority is partnering with Rutgers University to run a small business incubator currently housing more than 40 startups. The Center offers subsidized rent, professional mentoring, business services, and management assistance to newly formed companies and their employees. It also provides access to venture capital and other supportive services,” Foster reported.
  Foster also noted that in the spring of last year spring 2009, Rutgers–Camden celebrated the completion of a $37 million project that constructed a new School of Law facility and deeply renovated the existing 1972 structure.
  He added that, in an effort to build a critical mass of residential students in the city’s university district, the Camden County Improvement Authority is working to build a 350-bed graduate housing complex. And he noted that Rutgers–Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett has stated that Rutgers will seek to add further undergraduate housing as part of the campus’s overall plan to expand to 7,500 students.
  Foster also cited Rutgers for recognizing the critical need for higher education to help the city and the state meet the soaring demand for qualified nurses. In September, Rutgers announced plans to create a comprehensive School of Nursing that would provide a four-year BSN program, RN to BSN degree completion, and a graduate education program.
  And, Foster noted, during the fall, Rutgers received final approval to introduce PhD programs in public affairs and computational and integrative biology, “thereby attracting students from across the nation and around the world to Camden.”
  “On a smaller scale, an increasingly vibrant mix of retailers is adding to the diversity of street life around the city, Foster said. “From the Broadway corridor to the ground floor of the Victor Building, new businesses are recognizing the opportunities that a resurgent Camden represents and are choosing to bet on the city’s success.
  Residents have maintained a keen sense of history as well,” the GCP President noted. “Mainstays such as Hank’s Bar and Grill and Shirley’s Brass Rail on Market Street never fail to draw reliable crowds and are always a good spot to catch up with friends and colleagues,” Foster noted.
 
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By: Mike Willmann
Pictured: David Foster